Local housing permit numbers are low in January

Local housing permit numbers are low in January. New housing stats spiked in January across the nation. It's an increase of almost 10,000 homes compared to 2010. Builders say the warm weather played a huge factor in the boost in the number of home permits in January, but locally those numbers are a little different.

Housing experts from the Home Builders Association in Yakima and Tri-Cities say they're not worried and business will pick up quickly this spring. In January we were behind in building numbers compared with last year. In the Tri-Cities building permits were much lower. Program Director Renee Dahlgren says "in the Tri-Cities I believe it was 87 new housing permit stats for January compared to somewhere around a hundred in January last year."

The Yakima area didn't see much of a change. They saw 91 home permits for the city and county in January this year compared with last year's 92. Even though some of these numbers are starting off low it doesn't mean business has been bad for contractors, it's actually gotten better because more people in the last year have been remodeling their homes.

Construction owner Don Pratt says "it's a variety. We've been doing some tenant improvements for some offices. There's been some restaurants for some offices. There's been some restoration damage where there's been some pipes freezing."

Business has still been very good for builders because right now more repairs have been requested around town and we're told business is only going to get better for the home builders. "We've got our Home and Garden Show coming up next week and that for a lot of builders signals the beginning of high peak building," said Dahlgren.